View of the Douglas DC-3, N34 in flightPhoto courtesy of Oklahoma Historical Society

The Douglas DC-3, N34, is a monoplane aircraft built as a TC-47B in
1945 for the U.S. Navy by the Douglas Aircraft Company in Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma. It has seen continuous use since then, first as a Navy airplane
and later as a transport airplane associated with the Federal Aviation
Administration's safety inspection program. The Douglas DC-3, N34 is
representative of an aircraft type that revolutionized the commercial
airline industry and made a significant contribution to the evolution
of military aviation during World War II. First designed and built in
the mid-1930s, the first DC-3 flew on December 17, 1935, exactly 32 years
after the Wright brothers made the first powered airplane flight. More
than10,000 DC-3s were manufactured but only 410 are still registered in
the United States, making this airplane a rare survivor of a once common
aircraft type. Registered in at least 159 separate countries, the DC-3s
were utilized in a vast array of duties from luxury transcontinental passenger
transports to crop spraying. General features of Douglas DC-3s include
all metal fuselage and cantilevered low wing, all metal vertical and horizontal
stabilizer, two reciprocating radial engines, fabric covered control surfaces
(ailerons, rudder and elevators) and two main landing gear consisting
of wheels and tail wheel. The all-aluminum metal low wing was built in
three sections with the stub-wing center section integrated into the lower
fuselage; it supports the engines, nacelles and landing gear on each side
of the fuselage.

Douglas DC-3, N34 Photo courtesy of Oklahoma Historical Society

Completed in 1945 near the end of World War II, the Navy used the Douglas
DC-3, N34 at various worldwide locations as a transport airplane. Among
the assignments were London, Rome, Naples, Paris, Algiers, Frankfort, Brussels,
Oslo, Stockholm, Dublin, Cairo, Kuwait and Baghdad. Later converted to a
R4D-6, it was assigned to the U.S. Navy Utility Transport Squadron Four
(VRU-Four) from February 26, 1947 until March 1949 when it was detached
from the squadron and returned to the U.S. On April 8, 1947, N34 nosed
over in the mud while being taxied out of the only parking area available
in London, and both engines had to be changed. While not officially assigned
to the Berlin Airlift (1948-1949), it is highly probable that N34 flew
into Berlin in support of Operation VITTLES, as most airplanes in the area
during that time were pressed into support of the airlift operation. Sometime
prior to 1956 the airplane was put into storage by the Navy.

The Navy loaned the airplane, along with four other DC-3s, to the Civil
Aviation Administration (CAA), later the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA). The initial FAA assignment as a flight inspection airplane was
to the Southwest Region in Fort Worth, Texas, and later to various other
FAA regions. This airplane was operational and photographed with its first
CAA livery paint scheme on the ramp at Oakland in August 1958.

Douglas DC-3, N34 Photo courtesy of Oklahoma Historical Society

In 1981, N34 was withdrawn from flight inspection and assigned to the
training program in Oklahoma City, but was declared excess to FAA needs
on January 1, 1983. During the early stages of disposing of the DC-3s
beginning in the 1970s (as new jets were taking over their functions),
initial efforts by FAA employees to preserve one for its historic value
finally cumulated in this last FAA DC-3, N34, being reinstated by the
FAA Administrator in 1985. Since its 1983 retirement and 1985 restoration,
N34 has been used in the FAA's aviation educational programs to promote
aviation and the FAA's heritage. The airplane retains the same equipment,
furnishings and arrangement that were originally installed in 1957 and
is currently being restored so that it can participate in the First
Flight Centennial at Kitty Hawk.

The Douglas DC-3, N34,is located in the Texas Air & Space Museum, Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport, 10801 Airport Blvd, Amarillo, TX 79111 and is open to the public during regular museum hours.